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Gov. Dayton: I didn’t know source of e-pulltab estimate

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Gov. Mark Dayton says Minnesota’s Gambling Control Board should have disclosed from the beginning that gambling companies helped estimate the amount of tax revenue that would be raised by new electronic pulltab games tapped to fund a new Minnesota Vikings stadium.

Those projections were much higher than what’s been raised so far. Dayton tells The Associated Press Monday he wasn’t aware of the input from an industry that stood to profit from the new games, until the Star Tribune reported it Sunday.

Gambling Control Board director Tom Barrett says he never hid the role the companies played. He says they were consulted but that they didn’t drive the projections.

The lagging revenue has raised concerns the stadium finance plan will need to be reworked, but Dayton says it’s too early to make that call.